Hello, Sazdek here. Going to be trying my hand today at making a completely theory crafted guide and build featuring Arachne, the creepy spider chick. This guide is a work in progress (WIP) and will remain so until i deem otherwise. I in no way claim my guides or any guide ever to be the one and only way of building a character for every situation. As with all MOBA’s, your build will vary upon your situations and you must keep yourself and enemies in mind at all time when making purchases in order to progress the game in your teams favor. I welcome criticism (constructive please, I’m doing this to help people not for personal gain) and will consider all suggestions and test them thoroughly before i reject/accept the final analysis. Anyhow, on with the guide!

Arachne is a melee based Assassin with high damage potential and an amazing kit. She specializes in ganking, jungle clearing, assassinations, and punishing enemies for lack of good positioning.

PassivePoison Claws

Arachne applies poison on every physical attack that hits. The poison ticks every .5s for 3s and does 5 physical damage (+10% of her physical power from items) for the duration. Stacks 3 times

This is an OK passive, the numbers are kind of low but it can catch enemies offguard with how much damage you’re actually doing to them following each melee attack.

First AbilityBroodlings

Arachne lays spider eggs that act as wards, seeing enemies in the area around them. Enemies getting too close to the eggs cause them to hatch 2 spiders that attack the enemy nearby, slowing them by 20% and doing 25/35/45/55/65 (+17% of your phyiscal power) physical damage every second for 10s. Max of 5 eggs can be deployed. Cost – 60/65/70/75/80 mana. Cooldown – 15/14/13/12/11s.

This is what helps your jungle in a huge way. They can tank the jungle mobs for you while you whack away at them. During ganks if you’re able to sneak behind the enemy and lay out one of these as well as your web, they provide a huge stacking slow to help secure ganks. They can also act a mini wards that can be placed around the jungle to warn of invaders. As far as I can tell they have no time limit but will hatch themselves and suicide when an enemy advances towards them.

Second AbilityDrain Life

Arachne pounces on her melee target and attaches to them, draining 30/40/50/60/70 (+15% of your phyiscal power) health as physical damage every .5s for 3s. Right clicking or being disabled (stun, fear, or silence) will knock the Arachne off. Cost 65/70/75/80/85 mana. Cooldown – 15s.

This helps you in your jungle to soak up some damage for a short time, making you very sustain-y while jungling and in teamfights. It does require you being very up close and personal with the target when you use it though. Also another downside is they can dash/run into their turrets while attached to force you into turret range. Do not be afraid to right click off of the ability so this does not happen. During a gank I use this ability early due to the non-scaling cooldown, you wont likely get more than one of these off unless they do not retreat. In teamfights engaging on their closest, squishiest target will usually draw some attention to you, when everyone begins to turn on you use this to absorb some punishment.

Third AbilityTangled Web

Arachne spins an entangling web at her ground location, slowing her enemies within the radius by 20/25/30/35/40%. The spun web persists in the area for 10s. Cost – 70/75/80/85/90 mana. Cooldown – 15s.

Great for gankings, chasing, retreating, being an annoying creepy spider chick. During a teamfight this can be placed between the enemy team’s initiators and squishy backline in order to create a huge gap in their team and hopefully allow you to engage on those squishies without the fear of their annoying disruptors ruining your day. During a gank i place this as close behind my target is possible in conjunction with the Broodlings for maximum slowing.

UltimateCocoon

Arachne fires a web projectile towards her enemies. If the web hits an enemy god, it wraps them tightly doing 100/150/200/250/300 (+50% of your physical power) physical damage and stunning them for 1s, as Arachne pulls them to her. Cost – 100 mana. Cooldown – 30s

What makes Arachne such an annoying creepy spider lady. If you play LoL you may recognize this as Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab. And you would be correct. This can force a squishy out of position for an instant gank, pull a disruptor off of a teammate, or pull enemies directly into turret range. When preparing to use this ability set out some broodlings in your general vacinity. This may alarm your enemy however so you will have to be quick. Combining this in conjunction with your Tangled Web and broolings can mean for a dead god.

Items

As Arachne is a melee assassin she is built as purely physical damage, none of her abilities scale with magic power.

Boots

Warrior TabiFor balanced teams where you want to do maximum damage as possible

<710> <1335> <2150>

Reinforced BootsFor heavy CC teams where staying alive is more a worry than doing tons of damage,

<835> <1335> <2140>

Damage Items

Frosbound HammerMoved from optional to required, it seems to be a complete necessity on anyone who’s left click based. This keeps you stuck on targets longer and helps rack up the kills. Required

<775> <1450> <2350>

Quin’s BladesGood atk speed, very good proc that helps decimate those tanky types. Fixed, doesn’t work on mobs. Still great vs high hp tanky teams.Required

<700> <1510> <2650>

Devourer’s GlovesProvides a decent amount of Attack Power and Lifesteal, will help you sustain longer in 1v1’s and teamfights. Required

Titan’s BaneIf the enemy is stacking armor against you (I’d say at least 3 enemies that are high priority targets.) Optional

<650> <1450> <2050>

Armor

Hide of the Namean LionHighest armor value item, also reflects damage upon being struck. Also very very cheap. Get this when the enemy is very AD stacked and they don’t like spiders. Optional.

Magic Protection

Magi’s BlessingThe best magic protection you can pick up. Also gives a healthy dose of stats and a passive bubble from one hostile ability. Optional

Mix Magic/Physical Protections

Hide of the LeviathanIf your enemy is well rounded and none of them are severely worrysome. gives a decent amount of health and mana as well. Optional.

AbilitiesAll Abilities cost 500g

Hand of the GodsRequired for jungling

SprintRequired for teamfights and ganking

MeditationOptional for long teamfights or more time ganking and less time backing.

Aegis AmuletOptional if you find yourself being the target of all the enemy burst.

Purification beadsOptional if the team is heavy on hard CC that keeps you from ganking.

A note about abilities. Maybe it’s just low level but i find so very few people are actually buying and using abilities in games. They are massively useful and can save your life if used correctly. Do not be afraid to pick up abilities!

Build Order

4>2>3>1

This means level your ult whenever possible, maxing Drain Life (2) first, Tangled Web (3) second, and Broodlings (1) last. You will however take a point in broodlings first for jungling. Your First 5 levels should look like:

1>2>3/2>2/3>5 (take tangled web at 3 if you’re going to gank, or a second point in drain life if ganking is not possible.)

Starting items

Warrior Tabi/Reinforced Boots

Hand of the Gods.

Health Potions x2/3

Hand of the Gods is necessary for fast and efficient jungling, so starting with it and a pair of boots is ideal. Boots help your travel time and jungle clear (if you get warrior tabi). Health Pots help hold you over so that you’re always max hp for ganks or camps.

Build OrderNote: This is all still in working theory, i’m trying different buying orders to see what works best.

Warrior Tabi/Reinforced Boots

Hand of the Gods

Frostbound Hammer

Devourer Gloves

Sprint

Quin’s Blades

Defense item (Hide of the Nemean Lion, Magi’s Blessing, Hide of the Leviathan)

Deathbringer OR The Executioner OR Titan’s Bane (judge your situation)

Jungling

There are 6 jungle camps all of which provide buffs, as well as 2 bosses (Big Ass Fury who goves 300g to each teammate, and Fire Giant who provides a huge buff for your entire team). The buffs are:

Health Regen (green medical cross)

Physical and Magic Power (red sword)

Physical and Magic protection (yellow shield)

Mana regen (blue water drop)

Speed (orange boots)

Cooldown Reduction (white stopwatch)

The route is still being worked on, if anyone has suggestions for optimal route please feel free to comment with it and I will give it a shot with my stopclock.

Blue -> Green -> Red -> Yellow -> Gank ->Orange -> white

NEW!: Doing a bit of community opinion based testing, i have found by dropping 4 eggs at blue prior to the game start (this requires you being at the buff at around 50 seconds until minions spawn. 4 eggs is enough to kill the buff while you’re off on the next camp. The next camp being green. Drop broodlings on the center of the buff and kill it (you’ll get the blue buff just about the time you’re killing green.) Use HoG on Green. From here you can either take Red or gank the left lane, judge your situation and act accordingly. After you have blue+green, taking camps is very simple and shouldn’t require much explaining. If you get low on a camp just drain life the biggest one to tank the damage and get some health back.

Alternate route Green->Red->Yellow->gank->Blue->white->orange.

use this if your find yourself getting low with the camps. It shouldn’t happen unless you’re not letting your Broodlings tank for you.

A Note About Jungling

A lot of times these games are decided within the first 10 minutes or so by people getting fed or denied. With this in mind, don’t spend your whole early game just jungling and accumulating buffs. Once you’re level 5, even if the enemy is pushed onto their turret, your ult can secure a kill with the help of your teammates (hopefully teammates with hard CC). By getting yourself or your teammates fed, or denying the enemy farm and xp for those first minutes of the game, you can set the tone and the eventual outcome of the game in your teams favor.